EXERCISES  IN  MEMORY  OF 
LEVI    COOPER    LANE 


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EXERCISES  IN  MEMORY  OF 

LEVI     COOPER     LANE 

S 

HELD  AT  LANE  HALL 
OF  COOPER  MEDICAL  COL- 
LEGE ON  SUNDAY  AFTERNOON 
THE  NINTH  DAY  OF  MARCH  IN 
THE  YEAR  NINETEEN  HUNDRED 
AND  TWO 


PRINTED  FOR  THE 

FACULTY  OF  COOPER  MEDICAL  COLLEGE 

BY  THE  STANLEY-TAYLOR  COMPANY 
SAN  FRANCISCO  1902 


100 


EXEGI    MONUMENTUM    ^ERE     PERENNIUS, 
REGALIQUE  SITU   PYRAMIDUM  ALTIUS; 
QUOD  NON  IMBER  EDAX,  NON  AQUILO  IMPOTENS 
POSSIT  DIRUERE,  AUT  INNUMERABILIS 
ANNORUM   SERIES  ET  FUGA  TEMPORUM. 

HORACE,  ODE  xxx  OF  BOOK  in. 


EXERCISES  IN  MEMORY  OF  LEVI  COOPER 
LANE  HELD  AT  LANE  HALL  OF 
COOPER  MEDICAL  COLLEGE  ON 
SUNDAY  AFTERNOON  THE  NINTH 
DAY  OF  MARCH  IN  THE  YEAR  NINE- 
TEEN HUNDRED  AND  TWO 

DR.  LEVI  COOPER  LANE,  the  founder  of  Cooper 
Medical  College  and  of  Lane  Hospital,  and  the  founder 
and  endower  of  the  Lane  Course  of  Medical  Lectures, 
died  in  San  Francisco  at  a  quarter  to  eleven  o'clock  in 
the  evening  of  the  eighteenth  day  of  February,  1902. 
At  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  ninth  of  March 
following,  a  large  audience  assembled  at  Lane  Hall  of 
the  College  for  the  purpose  of  doing  honor  to  his  memory, 
the  Hall  having  been  profusely  decorated  with  greenery 
and  flowers  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 

The  exercises  were  opened  by  the  rendering  of 
Mozart's  "  Lacrymosa  "  by  a  quartet  of  mixed  voices. 
DR.  HENRY  GIBBONS,  JR.,  the  Dean  of  the  College,  then 
spoke  as  follows: 

"  Over  forty  years  ago  I  heard  Dr.  Lane  deliver  his 
first  lecture  in  this  city,  in  the  lecture  room  of  the  medi- 
cal department  of  the  University  of  the  Pacific.  He 


8  INMEMORYOF 

had  recently  resigned  from  the  Navy,  and  had  spent 
some  time  in  Europe  in  study  preparatory  to  accepting 
the  chair  of  physiology  in  that  college,  of  which  his 
uncle,  Dr.  E.  S.  Cooper,  for  whom  the  present  college 
is  named,  was  the  leading  spirit.  My  recollection  is 
almost  as  clear  as  though  it  were  yesterday  —  a  slender 
man,  dressed  in  the  conventional  suit  of  black,  much  the 
same  as  he  dressed  in  all  the  succeeding  years  —  concise 
in  speech,  clear  and  accurate  in  statement,  master  of  his 
subject,  as  he  was  of  everything  he  undertook.  During 
all  the  following  years  I  have  been  proud  to  call  him 
'  guide,  philosopher  and  friend,'  and  surely  no  man  had 
a  better.  For  over  thirty  years  it  was  my  pleasure  and 
profit  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the  affairs  of  this 
medical  college  and  its  predecessor;  and  while  others 
will  give  a  detailed  account  of  his  life,  his  aims  and  his 
achievements,  I  cannot  let  the  opportunity  pass  without 
a  few  personal  recollections  and  a  more  than  willing 
tribute  to  the  many  elements  of  character  that  raised 
him  above  his  fellow  men.  Dr.  Lane  was  the  most 
indefatigable,  painstaking  and  thorough  student  I  have 
ever  known.  There  was  scarce  a  field  of  learning  that 
he  had  not  to  some  extent  explored,  and  his  knowledge 
was  accurate  and  full.  One  was  often  surprised  at  his 
wide  range  of  information.  Studious  habits  had  been 
formed  in  youth.  German  and  French  were  to  him 
familiar  tongues.  His  knowledge  of  Latin  was  scholas- 
tic. Even  late  in  life  it  was  his  custom  to  read  daily  a 
page  from  some  favorite  Latin  author.  His  impromptu 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  9 

thesis,  when  under  examination  for  the  navy  was,  to 
the  surprise  and  consternation  of  his  examiners,  written 
in  Latin.  Remarking  once  to  a  surgeon  of  the  navy 
that  Dr.  Lane  had  been  in  that  service,  he  replied, 
'  I  am  well  aware  of  it.  It  is  a  tradition  in  the  navy 
that  Dr.  Lane  passed  the  best  examination  of  any  man 
who  ever  entered  the  service.' 

"For  many  years  Dr.  Lane  devoted  a  number  of 
the  morning  hours  to  reading,  investigation  and  writing. 
This  employment,  together  with  his  professional  work, 
was  his  business,  his  occupation,  his  pleasure,  his  vaca- 
tion. He  needed  nothing  outside.  A  year  ago,  having 
suggested  a  vacation  and  referred  to  Coronado  as  a  most 
restful  resort,  especially  in  a  mental  sense,  he  replied, 
f  I  have  never  needed  recreation  to  escape  work.  My 
work  has  always  been  a  pleasure  to  me.'  On  another 
occasion  he  said  :  f  I  once  wrote  eight  pages  every  day  ; 
then  I  wrote  six,  then  four,  then  two,  then  one,  and 
now  none.'  This  told  the  sad  story  of  his  gradually 
diminishing  physical  powers,  for  his  mind  was  as  clear 
and  his  memory  as  faithful  as  ever.  It  has  been  a 
marvel  to  me  that  with  a  far  from  vigorous  physique, 
he  was  enabled  to  accomplish  so  much.  A  few  months 
since,  referring  to  a  recent  work  on  surgery  by  Dr.  Senn, 
he  remarked  that  it  indicated  an  immense  amount  of 
work.  Upon  my  suggesting  that  be,  Dr.  Lane,  had 
also  accomplished  a  great  amount  of  work,  he  replied, 
deprecatingly,  f  Yes,  for  a  man  who  has  never  been 
entirely  well.  In  my  childhood,'  added  he,  '  I  was 


io  INMEMORYOF 

.subject  to  attacks  of  asthma,  and  I  remember  my  mother 
calling  me  into  the  house,  when  running  briskly,  and 
saying,  "You  will  pay  for  this  tonight.'"  Yet  the  half 
is  not  thus  told,  for  like  a  stoic  he  rarely  spoke  of  him- 
self. Who  has  heard  him  complain?  Who  knew  how 
often  with  him  the  mind  triumphed  over  the  body  ? 

"As  a  surgeon,  Dr.  Lane  realized  his  own  statement 
of  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  that  he  never  operated  on  an  im- 
portant case  without  previously  performing  the  operation 
on  the  cadaver.  Having  a  fine  memory,  this  assisted  in 
making  him  an  accurate  and  thorough  anatomist.  In 
his  knowledge  of  these  two  branches  he  had  not  his 
superior  on  this  Coast,  and  I  doubt  if  he  had  his  equal. 
He  was  easily  the  best  read  surgeon.  As  an  operator 
he  was  competent  for  any  undertaking  —  resourceful  to 
a  degree,  and  with  that  admirable  courage  and  self-com- 
mand that  comes  of  perfect  knowledge.  Dr.  Lane's 
interest  in  medical  education  was  persistent  and  untiring. 
For  at  least  a  decade  he  had  in  contemplation  the 
endowment  of  a  college,  and  I  look  upon  it  as  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  features  of  his  character  that  through 
these  years  he  could  have  bent  his  energies  to  the  accu- 
mulation of  means  for  that  purpose,  have  matured  all 
plans  and  even  erected  the  building  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  colleagues  that  he  had  such  a  plan  in  con- 
templation. This  was  characteristic  of  the  man.  He 
was  absolutely  without  ostentation ;  free  from  all  desire 
of  parade  or  display. 

"  Dr.  Lane  was  as  great  in  his  declining  days  as  in  his 


LEVI     COOPER    LANE  u 

prime.  In  the  days  of  his  greatest  activity  the  necessity 
of  economizing  time  in  consequence  of  his  very  large 
practice  had  imparted  a  certain  brusqueness  of  manner, 
almost  a  necessity  in  the  transaction  of  much  business. 
And  yet  in  all  my  experience  I  never  saw  him  hurried ; 
I  never  saw  him  excited;  I  never  heard  him  raise  his 
voice.  His  manner  was  uniformly  calm,  dignified  and 
impressive,  indicative  of  great  reserve  force.  His  deci- 
sion was  remarkable.  There  was  no  wavering.  A  col- 
league said  that  he  could  say  f  no '  more  easily  than  any 
man  he  ever  knew.  And  yet  he  was  never  obstinate. 
No  man  could  have  been  more  reasonable.  But  now, 
as  he  withdrew  from  more  active  work,  a  lessening  con- 
tact with  the  world  and  a  greater  leisure  softened  his 
sharp  decision  and  replaced  it  with  a  more  indulgent 
humor,  a  more  genial  spirit,  and  a  more  reminiscent  mood. 
"  Thus  my  years  of  close  association  with  Dr.  Lane 
have  shown  him  to  be  a  man  of  vigorous  and  untiring 
intellect  and  high  attainments ;  of  sturdy,  upright  char- 
acter, rigid  in  his  ideas  of  right,  noble  in  his  aspira- 
tions, wise  in  counsel,  clear  in  prevision,  prompt  and 
decisive  in  judgment,  steadfast  in  purpose,  firm  and 
unyielding  in  action,  and  withal  modest  and  unostenta- 
tious, as  becomes  a  wise  man.  These  are  attributes  of 
greatness,  and  like  Hamlet  I  say,  with  all  my  heart, 

"  '  He  was  a  man,  take  him  for  all  in  all, 
I  shall  not  look  upon  his  like  again.' 

"  No  memorial  column  reared  in  some  city  of  the 
dead  shall  mark  his  final  resting-place  for  a  time,  then 


iz  INMEMORYOF 

crumble  into  dust  and  be  forgotten,  but  these  stately 
edifices,  which  through  his  energy,  self-denial  and  munifi- 
cence have  been  erected  for  the  stimulation  and  better- 
ment of  the  noblest  of  professions  and  the  better  care 
of  the  sick ;  the  lecture  courses  that  he  has  inaugurated ; 
and  above  all,  the  grand  example  of  a  useful,  well-spent 
life — these  will  be  his  monuments  — more  enduring  than 
marble. 

"Peace  be  unto  his  ashes!  His  spirit  has  risen 
with  the  immortals." 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Gibbons's  introductory, 
MR.  WILLIAM  FORD  BLAKE  of  the  class  of  1902  spoke 
on  behalf  of  the  students  of  the  college  as  follows: 

"It  is  eminently  gratifying  to  us  as  students  to  be 
able  on  this  occasion  to  give  some  expression  of  our 
sorrow  over  the  passing  of  this  great  man.  His  death 
has  been  a  common  bereavement  to  us  all,  and  we  deem 
it  a  privilege  to  offer  our  tribute  of  admiration  and  affec- 
tion to  his  memory. 

"  It  has  not  been  our  good  fortune  to  know  him 
intimately,  to  feel  the  inspiration  that  comes  with  close 
association  with  so  great  a  man.  Nor  has  it  been  our 
good  fortune  to  enjoy  that  gentle  fatherly  guidance  in  the 
class  room  that  our  predecessors  in  these  halls  received 
from  him  and  hold  in  affectionate  memory. 

"  It  has  rather  been  our  painful  experience  to  see 
him  gradually  failing  with  the  passing  months,  to  realize 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  13 

that  his  physical  strength,  so  incommensurate  with  his 
vigorous  mind,  was  slowly  raising  a  barrier  between  him 
and  us. 

"  But  while  we  have  seldom  had  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  him  in  the  operating  room  or  of  listening  to 
him  from  the  benches,  we  have  known  that  his  thoughts 
were  with  us,  that  his  interest  in  our  welfare  never  flagged. 

"  We  were  ever  present  in  his  life,  in  his  plans,  and 
our  success  and  our  development  into  honored  members 
of  his  noble  profession  were  ideals  he  hoped  we  might 
attain. 

"  What  a  monument  he  has  raised  to  his  memory ! 
What  an  example  of  self-abnegation  and  self-sacrifice  is 
this  college  with  its  hospital,  its  laboratories,  its  library 
and  the  ground  on  which  it  stands! 

"When  we  stop  to  think  of  all  he  has  done  for  us, 
how  throughout  a  lifetime  he  has  worked  untiringly  that 
this  heritage  might  be  ours,  our  appreciation  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  man  becomes  a  real  presence  to  us,  our  obli- 
gation surges  upon  us,  and  our  hearts  go  out  to  him  as  a 
child's  to  an  indulgent  parent. 

"  It  pleases  us  to  think  that  it  was  for  us  and  for  the 
advancement  of  his  profession  that  all  this  has  been  done, 
that  our  success  and  the  futherance  of  his  noble  work  was 
the  labor  of  love  to  which  he  devoted  the  energies  of  a 
lifetime.  It  pleases  us  to  think  that  he  received  us  into 
his  presence  as  his  children,  that  he  took  us  at  that  form- 
ative stage  in  our  lives  when  by  his  example  and  his 
teachings  he  could  mold  us  as  he  would  have  us  grow. 


H  INMEMORYOF 

"  Had  Dr.  Lane  left  us  no  other  remembrance  than 
that  of  a  life  nobly  planned  and  successfully  carried  to  a 
glorious  end,  his  example  should  have  proved  a  stimulus 
to  each  one  of  us.  But,  when  in  addition  to  this,  he  has 
left  to  us  all  the  fruits  of  his  life's  work,  then  his  precepts 
become  a  sacred  duty,  his  example  a  moral  obligation. 

"As  we  have  honored  and  loved  him  while  he  was 
yet  with  us,  as  we  looked  upon  him  then  as  a  public  bene- 
factor and  as  a  foster  parent  who  had  received  us  into  the 
circle  of  his  affection,  now  when  the  sense  of  our  loss  is 
heavy  upon  us,  we  appreciate  as  never  before  the  splendid 
manhood  and  scholarly  attainments  that  won  for  him  a 
place  of  pre-eminence  among  his  colleagues,  and  we  realize 
as  never  before  the  tender  paternal  feelings  he  bore  us 
and  the  noble  motives  that  actuated  his  life." 

DR.  CHESTER  ROWELL  was  to  have  spoken  on  be- 
half of  the  alumni  of  the  college  but  was  unavoidably 
detained  at  his  home  in  Fresno.  Could  he  have  been 
present  he  would  have  made  the  following  remarks: 

"As  one  of  the  early  graduates  of  the  parent  school 
of  Cooper  Medical  College  and  in  behalf  of  the  alumni,  I 
offer  a  word  of  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Lane.  The 
occasion  is  not  one  for  expression  of  grief,  for  death  came 
to  him  calmly  in  ripe  old  age,  his  life's  work  accomplished, 
his  ambitions  satisfied,  his  hopes  realized.  His  physical 
body,  grown  old  by  years  of  labor,  no  longer  served  the 
purposes  of  an  intellect  that  never  tired  even  to  the  end. 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  15 

He  went  to  sleep.  His  body  was  cremated  in  accord- 
ance with  his  wish  and  in  approval  of  this  method  of 
disposing  of  the  dead.  His  intellect,  bright  and  un- 
wavering till  the  moment  of  dissolution,  still  lives  in  these 
noble  educational  monuments  dedicated  to  medical  science 
and  the  healing  arts, —  lives  in  the  record  of  his  work,  in 
the  lasting  impression  of  his  teaching  upon  the  many  who 
have  been  his  students,  and  in  the  silent  but  most  im- 
portant influence  of  his  example  upon  all  who  knew  him, 
and  upon  the  profession  at  large. 

"He  was  the  friend  of  every  student  who  manifested 
the  spirit  of  the  true  physician  and  sought  knowledge  for 
its  beneficient  rather  than  its  selfish  uses.  He  was  the 
associate,  adviser  and  defender  of  every  physician,  how- 
ever deficient  or  unfortunate,  who  gave  to  his  work  his 
best  efforts  with  pride  in  his  profession  and  an  unselfish 
desire  to  help  his  patients  rather  than  himself.  Yet, 
while  he  led  gently,  guided  wisely,  judged  charitably, 
dealt  kindly,  his  dislikes  were  as  intense  as  his  friendships 
were  strong,  and  he  frowned  upon  the  student  who  dedi- 
cated but  half  his  soul  to  the  profession  he  proposed  to 
enter,  as  he  spurned  the  physician  who  selfishly  betrayed 
his  brother  physician.  His  example  was  one  of  lofty 
devotion  to  pure  science  and  high  art  as  exemplified  in 
his  profession,  tempered  by  that  most  human  of  all  human 
impulses,  a  feeling  of  charity  for  the  unfortunate  and  of 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  humanity.  He  said  to  me,  after 
an  operation,  which,  at  the  time  was  marvellous  in  its  re- 
sults, '  The  patient  got  well,  that  is  pay  enough.' 


16  INMEMORYOF 

He  added,  '  Whoever  wants  my  surgery  may  have  it, 
whether  they  have  money  or  not.'  He  was  charitable. 
Every  day  of  his  long  life  of  labor  he  did  something  for 
the  afflicted  with  no  thought  of  a  money  recompense. 
He  recognized  his  obligations  to  the  poor  as  he  recog- 
nized his  obligations  to  deal  fairly  with,  as  well  as  treat 
properly,  every  patient.  His  charities  were  a  part  of  his 
every-day  work.  Upon  every  student  and  upon  every 
class  he  impressed  the  obligation  to  deal  honorably  with 
patients  and  to  be  kind  to  the  poor.  He  was  solicitous 
for  the  character  and  the  welfare  of  his  graduates  long 
after  they  left  the  lecture  halls,  and  felt  keenly  every  evi- 
dence of  their  successes  or  failures.  He  entrusted  the 
reputation  of  the  school  he  had  builded  to  its  graduates, 
and  he  cherished  the  good  will  and  kind  remembrance  of 
those  graduates  as  much  as  his  reputation  in  the  profession 
at  large. 

"These  were  some  of  the  personal  characteristics  that 
attracted  students  no  less  than  his  great  skill  and  wonder- 
ful knowledge,  and  for  these  he  will  be  remembered  by 
the  alumni.  His  generous  endowment  of  this  school 
and  hospital  for  medical  education  will  remain  his  visible 
monument,  constantly  reminding  his  successors  of  the 
names  and  the  work  of  his  venerated  uncle,  Elias  Cooper, 
and  his  own.  His  contributions  to  surgical  knowledge 
are  the  property  of  the  profession.  His  teaching,  his  in- 
fluence, his  cherished  memory,  are  his  legacy  to  the 
alumni." 


LEVI    COOPER     LANE  17 

Following  MR.  BLAKE'S  address,  Mendelssohn's 
anthem/'  Be  Thou  Faithful  unto  Me,"  was  sung  as  a  tenor 
solo,  after  which,  on  behalf  of  the  Faculty,  DR.  C.  N. 
ELLINWOOD,  President  of  the  College  in  succession  to 
DR.  LANE,  delivered  the  following  address  : 

"  The  guiding  hand  of  the  master  has  gone  from  us  ! 

"  Our  kindly  counselor,  arbiter  and  ultimate  referee 
in  all  our  perplexities  is  no  longer  here ! 

"Sad,  indeed,  are  these  days  when  we  have  to  part 
fellowship  with  Dr.  Levi  Cooper  Lane  —  a  good  man,  a 
great  man,  whose  noble  heart  lovingly  embraced  the 
universe,  the  mysteries  of  which  it  was  given  his  pene- 
trating vision  largely  to  see. 

"In  speaking  of  Dr.  Lane  I  shall  speak  of  him  as 
we,  his  co-workers  and  his  college  faculty,  knew  him  — 
in  his  daily  work,  in  his  life  work,  in  his  singleness  of 
purpose,  in  his  exalted  ambition  for  the  advancement 
of  medical  education  and  the  welfare  of  human  life,  and 
finally,  I  shall  speak  of  his  achievements. 

"In  essaying  an  analysis  of  his  strong  character  we 
note  his  early  associations  with  kindly  and  gentle  kins- 
folk, in  sympathy  with  all  goodness,  honesty  and  manly 
uprightness,  maturing  in  him  a  supreme  love  for  truth 
and  justice  which  has  grown  stronger  and  deeper  as  his 
horizon  expanded  in  his  added  years  of  thought  and 
experience. 

"  His  great  attainments  as  a  scholar,  as  a  scientist 
and  surgeon  ;  his  achievements  of  distinction  in  all  these 


i8  INMEMORYOF 

and  also  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  brought  him 
rewards  which  enabled  him  to  do  what  his  beneficent 
inspiration  prompted,  the  founding  of  a  great  school  of 
medical  education  for  the  improvement  of  his  loved 
profession  and  the  good  of  his  fellow  men. 

"  The  exacting  conditions  of  his  early  life,  imposed 
upon  a  youth  of  extraordinary  mold,  developed  a  man 
of  great  courage,  self-reliance  and  strong  will. 

"  He  could  fight  like  a  lion  for  the  oppressed  and 
never  surrender  to  wrong. 

"  Apparently  insurmountable  obstacles  in  his  early 
education  were  overcome  by  industry,  careful  economy, 
self-denial,  a  well  disciplined  mind  and  an  unswerving 
purpose  to  get  an  education  and  to  do  what  he  planned 
to  do. 

"  LEVI  COOPER  LANE 

Was  born  in  Ohio,  on  a  farm  thirty-four  miles  north  of 
Cincinnati,  May  9,  1830.  His  grandparents  were  Jesse 
Lane,  born  in  North  Carolina;  Hannah  Huddeston 
Lane,  born  in  Nantucket,  Mass.  ;  Jacob  Cooper,  born 
in  South  Carolina;  Elizabeth  Walls  Cooper,  born  in 
South  Carolina :  all  orthodox  Quakers.  His  parents 
were  Ira  Lane,  born  in  North  Carolina  in  1803;  Hannah 
Cooper,  born  in  Ohio  in  1811.  They  were  married  in 
Friends'  Meeting  (Quakers),  West  Eberton,  Ohio,  in 
June,  1829.  Their  first-born  was  called  Levi,  Biblical 
names  being  common  in  the  family  and  usual  among  the 
Quakers.  He  had  two  homes  in  his  childhood,  being 
nurtured  and  cherished  by  his  grandparents  as  well  as 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  19 

by  his  parents,  and  his  childhood  and  youth  would  seem 
to  have  been  divided  between  the  two. 

"  His  early  education  was  chiefly  in  private,  being 
taught  by  his  mother,  but  chiefly  by  his  aunt,  Ruth 
Cooper,  who  is  yet  living  at  the  age  of  85,  with  a  heart 
full  of  affection  and  tender  reminiscences  of  her  nephew 
and  pupil.  Later  he  worked  on  his  father's  and  his 
grandfather's  farms  and  attended  the  common  district 
schools.  At  the  age  of  16  he  became  a  teacher  and 
taught  in  the  district  schools  of  Butler  County,  Ohio, 
during  three  years. 

"  All  through  these  years  of  childhood  and  youth  his 
uncle,  Jacob  Cooper,  a  few  months  younger  than  himself, 
was  his  close  companion  and  loving  friend.  They  were 
playmates  and  schoolmates ;  both  nurtured  by  the  same 
kindly  parents  and  exacting  circumstances,  both  became 
great  students,  and  the  uncle,  Jacob  Cooper,  is  now  and 
has  been  for  many  years  a  professor  distinguished  for  his 
learning  in  Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey.  It  is  to  his 
affectionate  and  painstaking  care  that  we  are  indebted  for 
these  details  in  Dr.  Lane's  biography. 

"After  teaching  three  years  the  young  man  of  16, 
Levi  Lane,  began  his  college  training  in  the  spring  of 
1 847  by  a  six  months'  course  at  Farmer's  College,  for- 
merly called  Gary's  Academy,  and,  secondly,  after  an 
interval,  six  months  at  Union  College,  Schenectady, 
N.  Y.,  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1849-50,  where  he 
boarded  himself  and  lived  on  twenty-five  cents  per  week, 
but  paid  his  college  bills.  Union  College  subsequently 


20  INMEMORYOF 

gave  him  the  Master  of  Arts  degree,  and  in  1877  con- 
ferred on  him,  with  pride,  the  honorable  distinction  of 
LL.  D.,  Doctor  of  Laws. 

"  HIS    MEDICAL    EDUCATION 

"As  was  the  custom  in  those  days,  Dr.  Lane  com- 
menced his  medical  education  by  reading  medicine  with 
his  two  uncles,  Drs.  Esaias  and  Elias  Samuel  Cooper,  as 
preceptors,  and  later  he  entered  Jefferson  Medical  Col- 
lege in  Philadelphia,  where  he  studied  one  year  and 
graduated  there  M.  D.  in  March,  1851,  and  in  the  same 
year  he  was  appointed  an  interne  or  resident  physician  in 
the  large  New  York  State  Hospital  on  Wards  Island, 
where  he  remained  an  earnest  worker  with  his  hands  and 
brain  four  years,  until  1855,  wnen  ne  entered  a  competi- 
tive examination  with  thirty-one  others  for  the  position 
of  assistant  surgeon  in  the  United  States  navy.  He 
passed  the  examinations  higher  than  any  of  his  competitors 
and  secured  the  appointment  which  he  held  four  years. 

"  During  this  time,  the  ship  to  which  he  was  assigned 
cruised  in  many  waters,  and  on  one  of  its  voyages  to 
Europe  and  in  the  North  Sea  Dr.  Lane  obtained  a  fur- 
lough and  passed  two  months  in  study  at  the  University 
of  Gottingen.  He  pursued  his  studies  in  medicine  and 
surgery  with  unremitting  vigor  while  in  the  navy,  and 
continued,  as  a  recreation,  the  study  of  the  Latin  and 
Greek  in  which  he  became  thoroughly  proficient.  He 
also  taught  himself  the  German,  French,  Spanish  and 
Italian,  in  all  of  which  he  became  able  not  only  to  read 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  21 

and  write  these  tongues,  but  had  a  ready  command  of 
them  in  speaking. 


ADVENT    IN    SAN    FRANCISCO 


"In  the  year  1861  Dr.  Lane  having  resigned  from 
the  navy  was  induced  by  his  uncle,  Dr.  Elias  S.  Cooper, 
to  join  him  here  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  teach- 
ing in  his  medical  school  which  he  had  already  started  as 
early  as  1 858,  the  first  medical  school  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
and  also  aid  him  in  editing  the  journal  of  medicine 
which  he  was  then  publishing,  'The  Medical  Press. 

"Dr.  Lane  became  thoroughly  identified  in  spirit 
and  action  with  his  uncle;  he  rendered  him  the  most 
efficient  aid.  He  gave  him  his  confidence  and  love  and 
received  in  return  all  that  a  rich,  warm  and  energetic 
nature  could  bestow. 

"This  cordial  and  mutually  helpful  relation  con- 
tinued until  broken  by  the  early  death  of  Dr.  Cooper  on 
October  13,  1862,  and  since  that  premature  severance  of 
these  bands,  Dr.  Lane  has  followed  up  the  memory  of 
his  uncle  with  superhuman  zeal  and  affection. 

"  Opportunity  was  there !  and  Dr.  Lane  was  there ! 
with  all  fitness  and  capacity  for  the  arduous  work  before 
him. 

"  Early  in  the  year  1875  Dr.  Lane,  ever  thirsting  for 
all  the  knowledge  to  be  obtained  in  his  profession,  deter- 
mined to  further  pursue  his  studies  in  the  great  centers  of 
learning  in  Europe,  and  taking  his  wife,  his  helpmate  then 
and  always  the  devoted  sharer  in  all  his  aspirations,  he  visi- 


22  INMEMORYOF 

ted  London,  Edinburg,  Paris,  Vienna  and  Berlin,  spending 
two  years  more  in  diligent  student  work.  After  some 
months,  in  attendance  upon  the  college  courses  in  Lon- 
don, he  was  granted  the  M.  R.  C.  S.,  England,  and  won 
many  warm  friends  among  the  then  distinguished  profes- 
sors of  the  schools.  In  Berlin  he  regularly  matriculated 
as  a  medical  student  at  that  great  university,  and  after  six 
months'  instruction  in  its  laboratories,  clinics  and  hospi- 
tals, he  passed  the  examinations  and  received  the  doctor 
of  medicine  degree,  Summa  Cum  Honor •<?,  the  highest  grade 
of  the  university,  which  carries  with  it  the  remission  of 
all  fees,  a  most  unusual  thing,  especially  in  the  case  of  a 
foreigner. 

"Thus  honored  abroad  and  with  a  mind  enriched 
by  study  and  association  with  the  greatest  men  in  medical 
science  and  literature  of  the  world,  Dr.  Lane  returned  to 
his  home  and  to  his  fixed  purpose  of  building  up,  on  a 
broad  foundation,  a  great  medical  institution.  In  1880 
architect's  plans  were  matured  and  without  public  an- 
nouncement, with  no  ostentation,  the  foundations  were 
laid  and  the  superstructure  gradually  grew,  a  great  mystery 
at  first  to  the  people  of  this  city  as  to  its  intended  uses. 
Later,  on  suspicion  of  a  hospital  being  located  here  on 
its  present  site,  hostility  was  excited  among  many  of  the 
residents  in  the  neighborhood  whose  ignorance  of  the 
nature  of  hospitals  and  absurd  prejudices  led  them  to 
many  acts  of  opposition  by  court  proceedings  and  even 
by  threats  of  personal  violence  against  Dr.  Lane. 

"  He  was  undaunted  by  their  hostility, — moved  on 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  23 

in  true  American  fashion  with  his  work  in  the  most  dip- 
lomatic way  until  his  enemies  were  subdued,  intelligence 
succeeded  ignorance,  and  all  were  satisfied,  and  Lane 
Hospital  is  a  great  acquisition  to  Cooper  Medical  College. 

"And  so  it  was  that  the  medical  department  of  the 
Pacific  College  of  Letters,  which  slumbered  for  a  time 
after  the  death  of  Dr.  Cooper,  was  reorganized  and  re- 
vived by  Dr.  Lane  and  his  co-workers,  passed  through 
some  vicissitudes,  changed  in  name  and  affiliations,  progress 
in  methods  and  its  sphere  of  influence,  its  successor  was 
finally  created  and  announced  to  the  world  in  1882,  en- 
dowed by  this  magnificent  property  purchased  and  erected 
solely  by  the  munificence  of  Dr.  Lane  and  named  by 
him,  in  grateful  remembrance  of  his  uncle,  Cooper  Medical 
College  and  dedicated  to  medicine.  May  God  grant  it 
all  perpetuity,  as  a  living  monument  to  Levi  Cooper  Lane, 
an  ever  teaching  memorial  to  the  great  soul  of  its  founder 
who  breathed  into  it  his  breath  of  life,  his  legacy  to  medi- 
cal education,  his  boon  to  mankind ! 

"  Subsequent  to  the  original  foundation  this  annex  to 
the  college  building  was  erected  containing  this  auditorium 
called  Lane  Hall  and  laboratories  and  class  rooms  above, 
and  finally  Dr.  Lane  added  another  grand  gift  to  the 
institution,  as  a  part  of  the  original  endowment,  the  Lane 
Hospital,  which  was  opened  to  the  public  and  dedicated 
to  the  relief  of  human  suffering  in  the  year  1894. 

"To  the  work  of  the  hospital  and  the  college  Dr. 
Lane  devoted  the  last  busy  years  of  his  life. 

"  His  well  earned  fame  and  skill  as  a  surgeon  and 


24  INMEMORYOF 

teacher  have  richly  endowed  the  college  with  distinction 
among  the  educational  institutions  of  the  land. 

"  His  methods  were  simple  and  direct  with  clear-cut 
precision  in  everything.  He  devised  many  original  opera- 
tions in  surgery,  always  seeking  the  best  ways  of  perfect- 
ing the  surgeon's  art.  Medical  literature  of  the  past 
thirty-five  years  has  recorded  his  achievements  in  this 
regard,  and  the  many  young  men,  his  pupils  and  assist- 
ants, hold  in  grateful  memory  his  teachings  and  his 
example. 

"The  latest  endowment  to  Cooper  Medical  College 
made  by  Dr.  Lane  was  the  munificent  fund  which  he 
provided  for  the  perpetual  maintenance  of  the  annual 
course  of  the  Lane  medical  lectures,  a  yearly  course  of 
instruction  by  some  eminent  authority  annually  selected 
for  his  noted  ability  in  some  department  of  medical  science. 
The  practical  utility  of  such  teaching  strongly  appealed 
to  the  founder,  after  many  years  of  experience  and  obser- 
vation in  the  methods  of  medical  schools,  as  aiding  the 
alumni  in  persistent  study  and  progress  after  entering 
upon  the  active  duties  of  practice. 

"This  idea  and  plan  of  instruction  was  entirely 
original  with  Dr.  Lane,  and  ;so  far  as  I  know  Cooper 
College  is  the;  only  school  which  has  this  beneficent 
endowment. 

"  The  purpose  of  the  course  is  to  bring  from  any 
part  of  the  world  the  best  equipped  instructor  in  some 
department  of  medicine  for  a  brief  term  each  year  as  an 
addition  or  supplement  to  the  ordinary  courses  given  in 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  25 

Cooper  College  for  the  benefit  of  the  classes  of  students 
yet  in  regular  attendance,  its  undergraduates  and  also  for 
its  alumni  who  are  annually  invited  to  this  feast  of  knowl- 
edge offered  by  their  Alma  Mater.  And  also  the  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  at  large  are  cordially  welcomed  to 
partake  of  these  great  opportunities. 

"It  is  now  six  years  since  this  course  was  inaugurated 
and  the  busy  practitioner  from  all  parts  of  the  Pacific 
States  has  derived  great  pleasure  and  advantage  by  at- 
tendance upon  this  instruction.  By  its  opportunity  the 
average  man  is  brought  into  direct  relations  with  the 
extraordinary  man,  old  fallacies  are  removed  by  exact 
observations,  and  rational  medicine  is  made  to  supplant 
empiricism. 

"The  success  of  this  method  of  disseminating 
advanced  knowledge  among  practitioners  of  medicine 
evinces  the  genius  of  Dr.  Lane  and  merits  the  enduring 
gratitude  of  the  profession. 

"  Dr.  Lane  lived  to  see  the  fruition  of  his  work. 
Year  after  year  he  observed  with  great  interest  the  going 
out  from  these  halls  of  large  accessions  to  the  medical 
profession.  He  remembered  the  individual  graduate 
with  remarkable  acuteness  and  followed  his  career  with 
personal  concern.  Their  success  delighted  him  and  he 
never  wearied  in  well  doing  in  their  behalf. 

"His  relations  to  the  faculty  of  the  college  were 
singularly  harmonious.  His  self-sacrificing  devotion  to 
duty  and  earnest,  conscientious  ways  in  everything  com- 
manded the  respect  and  admiration  of  all  his  associates ; 


26  INMEMORYOF 

his  example  was  our  ideal,  his  conclusions  were  our 
authority,  his  ways  were  our  ways. 

"  His  unselfish  and  magnanimous  character  has  been 
given  form  and  expression  in  the  institution  which  he 
created  and  merits  to  endure  while  human  sympathy  lasts. 

"The  Rev.  Dr.  Horatio  Stebbins,  learning  of  Dr. 
Lane's  fatal  illness,  pays  him  this  tribute  in  a  letter  re- 
ceived here  on  the  day  of  his  death:  *  Dr.  Lane,  gentle- 
man, scientific  man,  scholar,  philanthropist :  If  he  is  able 
to  receive  it  tell  him  of  my  sincere  sympathy  and  cordial 
respect.' 

"  It  has  been  given  to  but  few  men  to  be  great,  to 
be  great  as  Dr.  Lane  was  great,  to  be  the  means  in  such 
eminent  degree  of  progress  in  the  development  of  that 
knowledge  which  saves  human  life  and  diminishes  human 
suffering. 

"  Medical  science,  medical  men  and  all  humanity  are 
bettered  by  the  life  of  Dr.  Lane. 

"A  few  short  weeks  ago  he  realized  that  his  end  was 
near,  that  his  work  was  finished,  and  in  an  unrestrained 
conversation  he  told  me  that  his  every  wish  and  purpose 
had  been  gratified  and  he  was  content. 

"  He  could  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be 
satisfied." 


Schubert's  "Great  is  Jehovah  "  was  then  sung  by  a 
double  quartet  ot  mixed  voices,  after  which  DR.  ED- 
WARD R.  TAYLOR,  Vice-President  of  the  College,  pro- 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  27 

nounced  the  following  eulogy  upon  "  Dr.  Lane  as  Sur- 
geon and  Man": 

"  We  are  most  worthily  gathered  together,  for  we  are 
here  to  commemorate,  as  far  as  an  occasion  of  this  kind 
may  serve  to  do  so,  the  life  and  services  of  a  man  who 
deservedly  won  our  admiration  and  love ;  a  man  who 
was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  medical  teaching  in  this  State, 
and  who,  from  the  early  sixties  till  within  little  more 
than  a  year  ago,  was,  with  but  few  interruptions,  industri- 
ously and  lovingly  engaged  in  that  teaching ;  a  man  who, 
for  more  than  forty  years  in  this  State,  so  devoted  his 
great  abilities  to  surgery  and  medicine  that  at  the  time  of 
his  death  his  was  the  most  luminous  name  in  Californian 
medicine  ;  a  man  who  produced  a  great  work  on  surgery ; 
a  man  who  founded  a  medical  college  and  hospital,  and 
who,  from  the  resources  accumulated  from  his  practice, 
caused  to  be  constructed  for  them  imposing  piles  of 
buildings  of  architectural  suitableness  and  beauty ;  a 
man  of  great  scientific  endowment,  of  learning  in  many 
directions,  of  wide  and  deep  acquisition,  acquainted  with 
the  best  in  literature;  cultured,  refined  and  noble;  a  man 
who  has,  at  his  own  expense,  brought  to  us  from  time  to 
time  some  of  the  very  leading  men  in  England  and 
America  to  deliver  courses  of  lectures  on  their  particular 
specialties,  and  who  has  provided  an  endowment  whereby 
such  courses  can  be  perpetually  maintained  ;  such  a  man, 
and  more,  are  we  here  to  commemorate. 

"  While  we  are  thus  engaged  may  his  spirit  vouchsafe 


28  INMEMORYOF 

to  hover  over  us ;  may  it  fill  us  with  something  of  his 
own  nobleness  of  aspiration ;  something  of  his  own 
purity  of  unsordidness ;  something  of  his  own  feeling  for 
the  betterment  of  man.  If  this  should  come  to  pass, 
then,  indeed,  will  these  services  be  consecrate ;  then, 
indeed,  will  this  hall  and  all  the  hearts  that  beat  within  it 
vibrate  to  the  harmony  of  religion's  own  music. 

"From  what  you  have  heard  to-day  of  Dr.  Lane's 
life,  how  consistent  it  all  seems  and  how  natural !  You 
have  seen  how  broad  and  deep  he  laid  his  foundations, 
and  what  noble  superstructure  he  raised  upon  them ; 
you  have  seen  how  carefully,  yet  surely,  he  proceeded 
from  step  to  step,  never  once  falling  back,  and  never 
once  losing  heart  or  courage ;  and  you  have  also  seen, 
and  have  doubtless  taken  the  lesson  deeply  to  heart, 
what  great  things  can  be  done  by  ceaseless  industry 
coupled  with  undeviating  concentration  of  effort. 

"  While  Dr.  Lane  was  physician  as  well  as  surgeon, 
yet  it  is  as  the  latter  that  he  is  best  known,  and  properly 
so,  for  this  was  the  field  wherein  he  reaped  his  richest  har- 
vests. And,  in  very  truth,  if  ever  man  was  born  to  be  a 
surgeon,  our  friend  was  that  man.  By  nature  he  lacked 
no  quality  necessary  for  the  office,  and  to  that  he  added 
an  acquisition  which  furnished  him  with  equipment  little 
short  of  extraordinary.  From  his  first  entrance  into 
medicine  until  past  his  meridian  he  persistently  dissected 
the  dead  body,  until  he  became  so  familiar  with  every 
part  of  it  that  not  even  its  darkest  corner  was  hidden 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  29 

from  his  eye.  He  knew  the  processes  and  surfaces  and 
curves  of  every  one  of  its  bones,  their  relation  to  each 
other,  and  to  tendons,  ligaments,  muscles,  vessels  and 
nerves ;  he  knew  every  foramina  and  what  passed 
through  them ;  he  could  visualize  every  organ  and 
muscle  of  the  body  and  their  relations  respectively  to 
each  other  ;  he  could  follow  each  artery,  vein  and  nerve 
through  its  entire  track,  and  at  every  point  of  that  track 
see  with  the  utmost  clearness  what  stood  in  relation  to  it. 
And  yet,  even  in  the  times  when  he  had  attained  to 
nearly  his  greatest  accuracy  of  anatomical  knowledge,  he 
scarcely  ever  performed  an  important  operation  until  he 
had  first  dissected  on  the  dead  body  the  parts  to  be  sub- 
mitted to  his  surgical  knife.  In  this,  as  in  all  things 
else,  he  took  no  chances.  Never  in  all  his  life  did  he 
undertake  a  task  short  of  the  most  complete  prepared- 
ness. It  hence  followed  that  in  operating  he  had  the 
reliance  not  only  of  his  natural  courage  and  skill, 
but  of  that  which  comes  of  fullness  of  knowledge,  and 
that  no  emergency  could  possibly  arise  which  he  could 
not  at  once  successfully  meet.  Many  a  time  in  his 
hospital  practice  would  he  make  a  demonstration  of 
anatomy  as  he  proceeded  in  the  operation,  pointing  out 
from  time  to  time  what  lay  beneath  the  point  of  his 
knife.  He  never  hurried  ;  was  always  cool  and  collected ; 
never  cut  twice  where  once  would  do ;  never  bungled, 
and  was  graceful  and  dexterous  at  every  step.  In 
removing  a  malignant  growth  he  cut  with  a  wide  margin 
and  was  careful  to  see  that  every  affected  gland  in  the 


3° 


N     MEMORY     OF 


neighborhood  was  taken  away.  He  saved  all  the  loss  of 
blood  possible ;  and  in  his  later  years  he  effectually 
brought  this  about  by  ligating  the  principal  artery  that 
led  to  the  part  to  be  excised.  In  this  way  he  amputated 
as  vascular  an  organ  as  the  tongue  with  scarcely  any 
loss  of  blood  by  tying  the  lingual  artery  before  he  began 
the  amputation.  In  plastic  surgery  he  was  not  only  an 
adept,  but  original,  as  will  be  seen  by  his  treatment  of 
that  subject  in  his  surgical  book ;  while  in  the  great  field 
of  fractures  it  is  doubtful  if  he  ever  had  a  superior.  He 
never  recommended  an  operation  in  what  he  conceived 
to  be  a  hopeless  case,  or  except  he  felt,  after  careful 
thought,  a  reasonable  assurance  that  the  knife  was  the 
last  resource.  He  was  anxiously  solicitous  as  to  the 
after-treatment,  and  never,  except  under  exceptional 
circumstances,  left  it  to  another. 

"  He  was  learned  in  both  physiology  and  pathology, 
and  to  the  end  that  he  might  become  so  he  attended  the 
lectures  of  the  French  savants,  walked  the  leading  hospitals 
of  Europe,  attended  the  lectures  of  Huxley,  and  worked 
in  the  laboratory  of  the  great  Virchow,  who,  in  his  venera- 
bility  of  age,  still  remembers  his  pupil  of  old  and  the 
untiring  assiduity  of  his  labors.  At  Berlin  he  was  given 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine,  and  in  England  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons. 

"  With  all  the  preparedness  that  came  after  years  of 
toil  in  his  own  and  foreign  countries  —  toil  that  covered  not 
only  the  theoretical  but  the  practical  —  he  began  to  devote 
some  hours  each  day  to  the  collation  of  notes  as  a  basis 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  31 

for  a  monumental  work  on  surgery.  It  was  his  intention 
to  treat  first  of  the  head  and  neck,  then  of  the  thorax, 
then  of  the  abdomen,  and  finally  of  the  extremities. 
For  ten  years  he  methodically  pursued  this  labor.  It 
took  him  just  that  long  to  collect  and  prepare  his  notes 
for  the  first  part  of  his  work  ;  but  not  until  they  were 
complete  did  he  begin  the  task  of  literary  composition. 
The  result  was  his  monumental  work  entitled  "  Surgery 
of  the  Head  and  Neck."  This  is  embodied  in  a  large 
octavo  volume  consisting  of  1,166  pages,  and  is  exhaust- 
ive of  the  surgery  of  that  region  of  the  body.  As 
might  be  expected  from  the  nature  of  his  mind  and  from 
the  course  of  his  preliminary  education,  the  style  of  this 
book  is  lucid  and  elegant ;  and  it  might  also  be  expected, 
as  is  the  case,  that  the  ancients  of  medicine  would  be 
drawn  upon  by  way  of  elucidation  and  illustration.  He 
left  no  field  unexplored,  either  old  or  new,  and  the  com- 
position is  so  good  in  literary  art,  and  the  matter  so 
interesting  and  clear,  that  an  educated  layman  can 
open  the  book  almost  anywhere  and  become  interested 
at  once  in  the  page  that  meets  his  eye.  He  had  col- 
lated some  notes  for  that  part  of  the  work  to  be  devoted 
to  the  thorax,  but  illness  supervened,  and  brain  and 
hand  refused  longer  to  do  his  bidding. 

"Dr.  Lane  was  a  man  of  character.  Character  is 
beyond  all  definition,  but  when  one  possesses  it,  it 
shines  in  that  one  so  distinctly,  so  luminously,  that  there 
is  no  mistaking  it  for  something  else,  So  true  is  this 


3z  INMEMORYOF 

that  all  counterfeited  simulations  of  it  are  of  no  avail; 
and  this  because  it  is  immovably  based  on  the  rock  of 
righteousness,  lifting  its  head  to  the  very  heavens, 
unshaken  by  any  storm  of  adversity  and  untainted  by 
any  breeze  of  prosperity. 

"  The  Star  of  Duty  ever  lighted  his  way,  and  on  that 
star  he  kept  his  eye  at  every  step  of  his  life.  No  cir- 
cuities,  no  deviations  were  his,  no  idling  in  the  by-paths 
of  pleasure.  Straight  on  he  walked,  no  matter  what 
hap  might  be,  discharging  to  the  utmost  the  task  that 
lay  at  hand,  and  leaving  it  not  till  accomplishment  was 
complete. 

"  Into  his  work  he  put  not  only  his  hand  and  head, 
but  his  heart  as  well.  No  task  that  he  undertook  was 
perfunctorily  done ;  his  love  was  in  it,  and  that  love 
gave  it  sublimity  of  life.  Nor  could  he  look  upon 
anything  as  trivial  that  fell  to  his  hand  to  do.  Serious- 
ness was  so  ingrained  in  his  mental  fiber  that  tempera- 
mentally every  task  was,  in  his  view,  important  and  could 
not  be  treated  otherwise.  This  is  not  to  say  that  he  had 
no  sense  of  proportion,  but  it  is  to  say  that  to  him  life 
in  all  its  relations  was  of  such  transcendent  importance 
that  not  one  of  his  own  relations  to  it  could  be  slighted 
or  scamped.  His  every  surgical  operation  was  pondered 
deeply  by  him  before  he  took  his  knife  in  hand,  and  by 
the  side  of  the  patient  he  stood  as  one  anointed.  Full- 
ness of  knowledge  did  not  make  him  bold,  but  cautious, 
rather ;  yet  so  courageous  and  so  well  equipped  was  he 
that  to  those  who  knew  him  it  was  simply  unthinkable 


LEV  I     COOPER     LANE  33 

that  any  emergency  could  arise  during  the  course  of  the 
operation  with  which  he  could  not  at  once  irresistibly 
and  successfully  deal.  He  had  the  highest  respect  for 
the  human  body  merely  as  a  body,  and  in  all  operations, 
and  in  dissections  even,  he  paid  it  that  respect  which  he 
deemed  to  be  its  due.  No  word  of  levity  on  such  occa- 
sions ever  escaped  him,  but  all  that  he  did  was  pervaded 
with  a  dignity  which  almost  verged  on  the  ceremonious. 
Indeed,  he  bore  his  dignity  with  him  as  a  surrounding 
atmosphere.  He  was  never  stiff  or  formal,  but  there 
was  a  certain  aloofness  which  not  only  did  not  tempt,  but 
rather  repelled,  undue  familiarity.  Yet  he  was  suscepti- 
ble to  the  incitements  of  wit  and  humor,  and  was  as  fond 
of  a  quiet  laugh  as  any  one.  And  though  his  demeanor 
was  sober,  and  one  might  say  not  at  all  demonstrative, 
to  his  friends  and  acquaintances  it  was  never  less  than 
charming.  He  betrayed  his  feelings,  it  is  true,  by  words, 
no  less  than  by  acts,  but  by  words  that  were  few  and 
measured,  and  back  of  which  there  was  an  immaculate- 
ness  of  sincerity  never  surpassed.  If  sincerity  be,  as 
Carlyle  says  it  is,  chiefest  of  human  qualities,  then 
our  friend  was  inestimably  endowed  ;  for  he  was  sincere 
from  the  centre  to  the  outermost  rim  of  his  being.  No 
diplomatic  or  other  concealments  were  his.  To  be  sure, 
he  was  wisely  reticent  about  his  important  undertakings, 
and  shrank  from  obtruding  his  own  personality  ;  but 
when  his  feelings  or  opinions  were  properly  challenged, 
they  responded  with  a  courage  and  truth  that  even  the 
blind  and  deaf  might  see  and  hear.  He  was,  hence,  as  well 


34 


IN     MEMORY     OF 


might  be  supposed,  a  man  who  had  no  sympathy  with 
compromises.  He  could  not  but  be,  from  the  nature  of 
his  organic  structure,  unequivocally  one  thing  or  its 
opposite.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to 
run  with  the  hare  and  at  the  same  time  to  hunt  with  the 
hounds,  or  to  smile  before  a  man's  face  and  frown  when 
that  man's  back  was  turned.  Those  who  were  at  all 
acquainted  with  him  knew  full  well  that  back  of  his 
every  word  and  deed  sat  Truth  enthroned  in  all  the 
transplendence  of  her  flawless  purity. 

"It  follows  from  all  this  that  in  matters  of  friendship 
he  was  a  devotee.  The  friends  he  had  and  their  adop- 
tion tried,  he  grappled  to  his  soul  with  hooks  of  steel. 
It  really  seemed  that  in  his  estimation  his  friend  could 
do  no  wrong,  and  that  what  his  friend  did  was  better 
done  than  any  one  else  could  by  possibility  do.  This 
devotion,  this  almost  religious  loyalty  to  his  friends,  was 
so  great,  so  deep,  that  those  who  fell  under  the  influence 
of  its  graciousness  will  ever  hold  it  as  among  the  richest 
of  their  treasures  and  far  beyond  all  power  of  language 
to  express. 

"  In  all  his  life  he  leaned  on  no  one,  but  was 
completely  and  entirely  self-reliant  and  self-possessed. 
Nothing  daunted  him,  nothing  opposed  him  he  did  not 
overcome.  Up  and  up  he  went,  no  matter  how  rough 
the  way  or  steep  the  ascent,  until  he  stood  upon  his 
chosen  peak,  triumphant ; — and  there  he  fell,  with  Death 
alone  his  conqueror.  He  grew  up  on  the  open  prairie, 
and  as  a  doctor,  night  as  well  as  day,  he  dared  its  then 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  35 

almost  trackless  paths  to  reach  the  side  of  some  sufferer. 
His  was  one  of  those  exceptional  natures  whose  own 
well  of  strength  furnishes  all  that  is  necessary  to  great 
achievement. 

"  His  conversation  was  a  satisfying  pleasure  to  all  who 
were  brought  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence.  He  had 
drank  deep  of  the  classics,  he  was  acquainted  with  much 
that  was  best  in  various  literatures,  he  had  traveled  in 
many  countries  and  always  with  an  observant  eye  that 
delighted  in  the  beauty  of  natural  aspects,  and  he  had 
served  as  an  officer  in  the  navy  for  four  years.  The 
knowledge  and  experiences  thus  gained  furnished  him  with 
a  superabundance  of  material  for  conversation,  all  of  which 
he  used  with  rare  discrimination  and  remarkable  felicity. 
He  never  talked  for  the  mere  sake  of  talking,  and  he  was 
a  good  listener  when  others  talked,  but  what  he  said  was 
interesting  and  to  the  purpose  and  was  frequently  drawn 
from  the  seemingly  exhaustless  stores  of  his  memory. 
In  fact,  his  memory  remained  with  him  to  the  very  last, 
not  alone  his  memory  of  past  events,  but  his  memory  as 
well  of  passages  from  favorite  authors.  Scientific  man 
though  he  was,  he  had  no  patience  with  the  educational 
clamor  against  the  classics  and  in  favor  of  science.  He 
knew  well  enough  that  from  the  classics  as  from  a  welling 
fountain  had  flowed  the  streams  which  had  so  fed  every 
literature  that  those  literatures  are  to  a  great  extent  non- 
understandable  without  a  knowledge  of  the  classics ;  he 
knew  well  enough  that  man  cannot  live  on  science  alone, 
dealing  as  it  does  almost  entirely  with  externalities,  and 


36  INMEMORYOF 

that  if  he  is  to  be  truly  nourished  he  must  look  to  the 
food  which  will  feed  his  soul ;  he  knew  well  enough  that 
exclusive  devotion  to  science  would  cause  the  best  springs 
of  being  to  run  dry,  with  the  almost  sure  result  of  arrest 
or  distortion  of  development;  he  knew  well  enough  that 
while  facts  and  their  relations  to  each  other  with  their  gov- 
erning laws  are  necessary  to  be  ascertained,  co-ordinated 
and  made  useful,  yet  that  ideals  are  not  to  be  found  there, 
nor  religion  at  its  deepest,  nor  those  aspirations  which  at 
times  make  us  as  the  very  Gods  themselves ;  he  felt  that 
all  these  spiritualities  lay  at  the  very  core  of  being,  while 
facts  and  their  relations  lay  only  at  its  circumference ;  and 
he  likewise  felt  that  while  science  can  measurably  explain 
our  environment,  and  can  indeed  do  much  to  change  it 
(and  how  miraculous  her  achievements !),  yet  that  within 
its  environment  each  soul  must  work  out  its  own  salvation, 
and  that  by  no  external  mechanism  merely  can  man  ever 
hope  to  be  saved.  Thus  it  was  that  he  valued  the  Past 
while  at  the  same  time  knowing  and  feeling  that  the 
golden  opportunity  for  each  of  us  is  the  Present.  Full 
well  he  knew  that  to  tear  up  the  Past  would  be  to  obliterate 
the  Present,  and  that  every  flower  now  growing  sends  its 
roots  deep  down  to  the  nourishing  grave  of  a  flower  that  was. 
This  intelligent  love  of  the  Past  led  him  to  find  valuable 
suggestions  in  the  medical  works  of  Hippocrates,  Celsus 
and  others,  and  to  keep  him  to  the  old  practice  of  bleed- 
ing in  some  of  the  cases  not  now  usually  thought  to  need 
such  remedy.  And  this  it  was  that  led  him  to  view  with 
impatience  the  scholastic  efforts  to  a  supposed  better 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  37 

translation  of  the  Bible.  He  loyally  adhered  to  the 
King  James  version,  that  incomparable  work  of  the 
incomparable  Elizabethans,  and  he  would  have  none 
other. 

"  He  was  not  only  accomplished  in  the  Latin  and 
Greek,  some  of  which  when  in  health  he  read  nearly 
every  day,  but  he  was  a  French  and  German  scholar,  read- 
ing and  speaking  both  with  facility,  and  he  had  considerable 
acquaintance  with  the  Spanish  and  Italian.  Yet  none  of 
these  linguistics  ever  stood  in  the  way  of  his  keeping 
abreast  of  medical  and  surgical  progress.  He  took  and 
read  the  leading  American,  English,  German  and  French 
periodicals,  and  made  copious  notes  from  them  when 
working  on  his  f  Surgery  of  the  Head  and  Neck.' 

"  He  was  well  read  in  the  American  and  European 
literatures,  but  in  this,  as  in  everything  else,  he  showed 
the  most  distinguishing  trait  of  his  character — concentra- 
tion of  effort.  He  never  scattered  in  anything.  Hence 
his  reading  was  multum  and  not  multa.  Only  the  master- 
pieces he  really  cared  intensely  for,  and  with  these  he  had 
a  familiar  acquaintance.  The  Iliad  was  to  him  a  perpet- 
ual delight,  and  although  he  could  follow  it  in  the  original, 
he  took  great  interest  in  reading  its  many  English  trans- 
lations and  in  comparing  the  one  with  the  other  in  the 
rendering  of  admired  passages.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
Dante's  '  Divine  Comedy,'  of  Moliere's  plays,  and  of 
Goethe's  f  Faust. '  As  for  the  dramas  of  Shakespeare,  he 
knew  much  of  them  by  heart,  and  not  long  before  his  taking 
offhe  repeated  long  passages  from  them,  and  in  one  instance 


38  INMEMORYOF 

corrected  the  misquotation  of  a  friend.  He  cared  greatly 
for  Heine,  but  most  of  all  apparently  because  of  that 
wonderful  man's  penetrating  appreciation  of  Shakespeare. 
Horace  was  his  favorite  among  the  Latins;  he  had  some 
rare  and  interesting  editions  of  that  poet,  and  the  best 
things  in  him  he  knew  by  heart.  Indeed,  outside  of 
Shakespeare,  Horace  seemed  to  be  his  nearest  literary 
friend.  Many  of  the  passages  of  the  f  Paradise  Lost '  he 
delighted  to  read  and  to  hear  read,  while  among  Ameri- 
can authors  Emerson  and  Holmes  were  his  favorites,  as 
Carlyle  was  among  the  moderns  of  England.  For 
novels  he  seemed  to  care  but  little,  his  love  in  that 
line  of  literature  having  been  mainly  concentered  on 
Dickens. 

"  Dr.  Lane's  mind  was  of  wide  compass,  vigorous, 
serene,  and  not  to  be  shaken  by  disease  or  even  by  death 
itself.  Throughout  his  last  illness  no  complaints  or  re- 
grets escaped  him  ;  he  bore  his  enforced  helplessness  with 
the  resignation  of  a  saint;  and  on  one  occasion  a  few 
weeks  before  he  left  us,  something  having  been  said  to 
him  about  his  career,  he  exclaimed  with  a  slight  tone  of 
exultation  mingled  with  one  of  resignation,  c  I  am  satis- 
fied !'  And  well  he  might  be!  His  mentality  was  clear 
and  alert  till  his  last  expiring  gasp.  He  folio  wed  acutely 
and  intelligently  the  course  of  his  malady ;  and  a  few 
minutes  before  the  fatal  event,  having  told  the  nurse  that 
he  felt  very  weak  and  needed  a  stimulant,  she  suggested 
calling  one  of  the  attending  physicians ;  this  he  declined  ; 
but  scarcely  had  he  swallowed  the  draught  he  had  re- 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE 


39 


quested,  when  throwing  up  his  hands  he  exclaimed,  f  It's 
death !  death !  death ! '  and  almost  immediately  expired. 
"  Fond  as  he  was  of  poetry  and  of  the  best  in  litera- 
ture, yet  his  mind  was  essentially  practical.  Carlyle  him- 
self had  no  greater  antipathy  to  metaphysics  than  had  our 
friend.  The  problems  of  ontology,  of  determinism  and 
freedom,  and,  indeed,  the  questions  raised  by  Philosophy 
in  her  wandering,  and  not  altogether  luminous,  course 
through  the  centuries,  not  only  had  no  fascination  for 
him,  but  they  were  positively  distasteful.  His  view  was  that 
all  such  problems  were  insoluble,  at  least  were  insoluble 
by  him,  and  being  so,  that  he  would  waste  his  time  by 
trying  to  solve  them.  Some  may  deem  this  to 
have  been  a  defect  in  a  singularly  well-balanced  mental 
organization,  but  if  it  be  so  how  much  do  we  owe  to  that 
defect !  By  reason  of  it  our  friend  was  kept  straight  on 
the  course  he  had  marked  out  for  himself  and  which  by 
nature  he  was  best  fitted  to  follow;  by  reason  of  it,  no 
dream  of  piercing  to  the  centre  of  things,  with  a  possible 
consequent  of  despair  at  failure,  palsied  his  energies ;  by 
reason  of  it  he  worked  in  the  full  glow  of  a  rational 
optimism,  and  by  reason  of  it  he  fronted  full  faced  and 
with  unappalled  and  irresistible  courage  the  palpable  reali- 
ties that  were  clearly  before  him  from  day  to  day.  And 
had  one  been  bold  enough  to  ask  him  what  his  religion  was, 
he  would  have  been  likely  to  reply,  as  did  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son to  one  who  had  made  the  like  inquiry  of  him :  f  My 
religion  is  known  to  my  God  and  myself  alone.  Its 
evidence  before  the  world  is  to  be  sought  in  my  life;  if 


4o  INMEMORYOF 

that  has  been  honest  and  dutiful  to  society  the  religion  which 
has  regulated  it  cannot  be  a  bad  one.'  * 

"  The  life  that  was  close  at  hand  was  to  our  friend  the 
one  essential  thing — to-day  was  his  and  to-morrow  might 
never  be ;  his  task  lay  before  him  lit  by  the  rays  of  an 
unclouded  hope,  and  to  the  doing  of  that  task  he  never 
ceased  to  address  himself,  leaving  dreams  to  the  poet  and 
abstruse  speculations  to  the  philosopher.  No  siren  voice 
could  lure  him  as  on  he  voyaged.  If  he  halted  from 
time  to  time  to  drink  from  the  fountain  of  poesy,  or  to 
press  the  juices  of  nature  to  his  lips,  it  was  but  as  strength- 
ening cordial  that  enabled  him  the  better  to  keep  on  and  on. 
And  if  genius  be  as  Turner  said  it  was,  the  capacity  for 
hard  work,  or  as  another  has  said,  the  capacity  for  taking 
infinite  pains,  then  indeed  was  our  friend  a  genius. 

"  Dr.  Lane  was  the  simplest  of  men  in  his  manners, 
though  always  dignified ;  and  while  for  years  he  and  his 
accomplished  wife  entertained  their  friends  on  Sunday 
evenings,  yet  he  himself  was  not  much  of  a  social  visitor 
and  cared  little  or  nothing  for  the  conventionalities  of 
society.  His  life  was  too  concentrated,  too  earnestly  bent 
on  the  accomplishment  of  his  great  plans,  to  yield  to  any 
demands  except  those  he  deemed  imperative.  While  at 
times  he  may  have  seemed  austere,  he  yet  was  the  ten- 
derest  and  kindest  of  men.  His  eye  was  not  fixed  on  the 
fee  but  on  the  malady  and  the  means  to  cure  it.  Many 

*  This  extract  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  of  Jefferson  to  John  Adams,  dated  January 
n,  1817.  In  this  letter  Jefferson  speaks  of  the  inquirer  as  "one  of  our  fan-coloring 
biographers  who  paints  small  men  as  very  great." 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  41 

an  important  operation  he  performed  for  no  reward,  and 
with  no  hope  of  reward,  and  never  once  did  he  refuse  the 
poorest  the  benefit  of  his  knowledge  and  skill. 

"And  yet  this  man  who  toiled  so  terribly,  who  ac- 
complished so  much,  who  ceased  not  till  worn-out  nature 
compelled  cessation,  was  himself  the  victim  of  an  incurable 
ailment.  In  fact  it  is  truth  to  say  that  from  early  life  he 
had  scarcely  known  an  entirely  well  day.  The  emphy- 
sema of  the  lungs  which  then  developed,  and  for  which 
there  is  no  curative  agency,  necessarily  weakened  him, 
left  him  with  a  persistent  cough  and  rendered  him  an  easy 
prey  to  bronchitis,  which  several  times  came  near  to  the 
ending  of  his  life.  And  this  it  was  that  mainly  contrib- 
uted to  his  final  taking  off. 

"  With  his  other  accomplishments  Dr.  Lane  was  a 
botanist,  but  he  took  more  than  a  scientific  interest  in 
plants,  trees  and  flowers.  They  were  to  him  things  of 
beauty  which  were  joys  forever.  They  always  interested 
and  refreshed  him,  and  his  home  was  in  part  made  beauti- 
ful by  the  presence  of  flowers  in  abundance  and  variety, 
while  no  recreation  seemed  so  to  please  him  as  his  visits 
to  Golden  Gate  Park.  In  fact  that  park  was  the  subject 
of  his  last  Lane  lecture,  wherein  he  exhaustively  treated 
that  incomparable  pleasure  ground  in  a  manner  not  only 
surprising  in  its  completness  but  delightful  in  its  literary 
presentation. 

"With  all  his  sturdiness  and  strength  he  was  a  true 
gentleman  born  and  bred.  In  fact  we  might  truthfully 
say  of  him : 


42  INMEMORYOF 

"  He  had  completeness:     Gentleman  and  man 
Bloomed  in  his  nature  a  composite  flower; 
The  grace  and  elegance  of  mien  that  can 
Alone  assure  us  that  the  subtile  power 
Of  pure  refinement  every  action  rules, 
High  culture,  dignity  and  gentleness, 
All  these  were  his.     And  in  the  sterner  schools, 
Where  none  but  souls  that  vigorously  press 
Forever  onward  win  the  world's  success, 
He  was  as  sturdy  as  a  man  might  be. 
And  with  it  all  pretentious  ne'er  was  he, 
But  went  his  way  in  charming  modesty. 

"  Dr.  Lane  had  no  children  but  his  works.  Fortu- 
nately for  him  he  united  himself  more  than  thirty  years 
ago  with  a  lady  of  rare  accomplishments,  who  so  fitted 
into  his  life  that  the  two  became  spiritually  one.  The 
thought  of  the  one  was  the  thought  of  the  other;  together 
they  planned  everything  connected  with  the  college  and 
hospital  buildings  ;  together  they  explored  literatures  ;  to- 
gether they  trod  the  shards  as  well  as  walked  the  flowery 
meads ;  and  when  the  husband  was  doing  work  which  by 
reason  of  its  nature  the  wife  could  give  no  assistance  in, 
he  felt  himself  taking  in  at  every  breath  the  refreshment 
of  her  love  and  sympathy. 

"  Fortunate,  thrice  fortunate  man !  What  fullness, 
what  roundness  of  completion,  what  achievement  follow- 
ing on  concentration  of  faculty  and  effort,  what  heritage 
as  result  of  all,  rise  before  us  here  in  the  very  sublimity 
of  harmonious  proportion  !  Why  then  should  we  grieve 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  43 

for  him,  our  brother  ?  Why  should  we  not  rather  send 
up  our  paeans  of  praise,  that  he  was  given  to  us  for  our 
enrichment  and  for  the  enrichment  of  those  who  will 
come  after  us?  He  had  lived  nearly  two  years  beyond 
the  psalmist's  allotment  of  life,  he  had  filled  all  the  years 
of  that  life  with  labors  that  led  to  glorious  results  ;  noth- 
ing he  touched  that  did  not  bloom  in  the  full  flower  of 
abundant  success;  every  step  of  his  way,  coruscating  as 
it  did  with  the  jewels  of  his  deeds,  led  him  to  the  grand 
culmination  of  all  —  the  founding  of  college  and  hospital, 
where  he  sits  so  securely  throned  that  every  stone  of 
their  structure  would  have  to  be  annihilated  before 
oblivion  would  dare  to  dream  of  making  his  name  its 
own ;  and  even  then  standing  on  the  bare  and  barren  spot 
it  would  beat  the  enemy  off;  yea,  he  lives  more  endurably 
still  than  in  iron  or  stone  —  in  the  memory  of  man ;  and 
in  that  memory  he  cannot  but  live  as  long  as  Medicine 
can  lift  her  glorious  head  among  the  glories  of  the  world. 
We  crown  him  with  laurel  that  can  never  fade,  and  with 
that  laurel  round  his  noble  brow  we  take  earthly  leave 
of  his  personal  presence,  and  hail  with  jubilation  his  en- 
trance into  the  company  of  the  immortals." 


JACOB  COOPER,  D.  D.,  D.  C.  L.,  now  and  for  long 
a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  Rutgers  College,  New  Jersey, 
prepared  the  tribute  which  follows,  but  it  arrived  too  late 
for  utilization  on  the  programme.  Dr.  Cooper,  though 


44  INMEMORYOF 

seven  months  younger  than  Dr.  Lane,  was  his  uncle,  and 
was  in  the  closest  terms  of  intimacy  with  Dr.  Lane  in 
the  latter's  years  of  youth  and  early  manhood.  Corre- 
spondence by  letter  was  always  maintained  between  them 
and  their  mutual  affection  continued  strong  and  unim- 
paired. The  following  is  Dr.  Cooper's  tribute : 

"  The  conservation  of  energy  is  the  most  important 
doctrine  ever  held  by  science.  Its  distinct  enunciation 
is  recent,  and  it  was  formulated  by  those  who  either- 
ignored  or  were  hostile  to  the  belief  that  the  world  is 
controlled  by  a  personal  God.  But,  like  all  the  weapons 
forged  against  supernatural  religion,  the  evil  purpose 
thwarts  itself,  since  this  doctrine  is  found  to  be  a  most 
effective  iustrument  in  its  support.  For  it  teaches  that 
every  kind  of  energy,  which  necessarily  includes  man's 
spirituality,  the  greatest  of  all,  is  indestructible.  This  does 
its  work  in  one  place  and  under  one  set  of  conditions} 
then  passes  on  undiminished  to  continue  its  service  in 
new  spheres  of  activity  forever. 

"  There  are  evidently  two  kinds  of  energy  at  work 
in  this  world — one  material,  the  other  spiritual.  The 
former  serves,  the  latter  directs.  The  one  acts  blindly, 
the  other  knows  why  it  commands.  Physical  forces  have 
no  meaning  save  as  they  are  controlled  by  something 
which  knows  why  it  acts.  The  latter  may  seem  weak, 
the  weakest  in  nature,  but  'the  thinking  reed,'  though 
bending  before  every  breeze  in  apparent  helplessness, 
sways  the  universe  by  its  nod. 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  45 

"As  a  notable  illustration  of  these  truths  we  have 
had  among  us  a  man  who  was  the  embodiment  of  energy. 
This  was  shown  in  every  conceivable  way.  Power  went 
out  from  the  hem  of  his  garment.  His  coming  put  away 
fear.  His  touch  conveyed  healing.  His  look  calmed 
anxiety.  His  word  inspired  courage.  His  skill  balked 
death.  His  presence  rewarded  our  whole  social  life,  and 
like  quicksilver  amid  the  rubbish  it  seized  upon  any  grain 
of  gold. 

"  He  was  the  builder  of  his  own  character  and  fortune. 
In  his  youth  he  conquered  poverty.  He  made  a  trium- 
phal progress  out  from  unsympathetic  environment.  He 
made  circumstances  his  lackeys  ;  and  after  he  had  achieved 
success  superior  even  to  envy,  he  did  not  forget  the 
humble  place  from  which  he  had  risen.  What  he  had 
won  from  the  world  by  genius  and  untiring  energy,  he 
gave  back  like  the  clouds  pour  out  to  water  the  earth. 
Of  most  versatile  character,  and  wielding  every  sort  of 
energy,  the  whole  was  directed  by  the  purpose  to  do  right, 
the  knowledge  of  the  method  and  a  will  that  was  irresist- 
ible. His  courage  did  not  quail  before  audacious  mean- 
ness. His  sense  of  duty  was  not  swerved  by  the  flatteries 
of  friends  or  the  threats  of  enemies.  He  forgot  his  own 
vexations  in  the  effort  to  console  others.  He  arose  from 
a  sick  bed  to  minister  to  those  less  ailing  than  himself. 
His  will  power  controlled  his  own  bodily  weakness,  his 
sympathy  for  others,  his  personal  bereavements,  his  sense 
of  public  duty,  all  private  interests.  In  him  all  energy 
was  subservient  to  moral  principle,  illustrating  the  divine 


46  INMEMORYOF 

utterance,  c  If  thine  eye  be  single  thy  whole  body  shall 
be  full  of  light.'  Hence  his  power  was  so  directed  that 
it  worked  as  a  unit  in  a  very  marked  personality.  That 
personality  has  gone  out  from  us,  but  continues  some- 
where as  the  embodiment  of  what  he  proposed,  attempted 
and  effected.  In  combination  it  formed  the  character 
which  he  had  built  up,  and  constituted  the  greatest  force 
we  had  in  this  community. 

"  Has  it  perished  ?  If  so,  then  all  science,  which  builds 
upon  conservation,  is  false.  Has  this  tremendous  energy, 
which  represented  his  personality,  ceased  its  activity? 
Then  the  powers  of  nature  which  he  touched,  healed,  in- 
creased, have  ceased.  Does  physical  force  directed  by 
moral  still  continue  ?  Then  Levi  Cooper  Lane  is  alive 
and  expanding  even  as  he  did  while  in  our  sight.  But 
we  desire  to  peer  into  the  undiscovered  country  and  fol- 
low his  movements. 

"  The  border  land  between  religion  and  science  is  full 
of  analogies.  The  arc  of  a  circle  enables  us  to  follow  its 
course  after  it  has  passed  beyond  our  sight.  Our  friend 
has  crossed  an  invisible  line.  For  this  world  and  the 
next  meet,  and  the  place  where  they  join  is  too  narrow 
to  be  seen.  Time  and  eternity  are  parts  of  God's  day. 
Our  Lord  owns  on  both  sides  of  the  River  of  Death,  and 
the  two  realms  make  but  one  sovereignty.  Our  friend, 
while  he  was  in  our  sight,  was  about  his  Father's  business 
without  cessation,  in  sickness  and  in  health,  in  joy  and 
in  sorrow.  There  was  ever  the  same  trend  of  the  arc,  and 
we  have  been  privileged  to  see  enough  of  it  to  calculate 


LEVI     COOPER     LANE  47 

its  bearings  and  determine  its  future  course.  He  will 
continue  giving  out  light  and  love  with  increasing  power 
forever ;  coming  nearer  to  God,  who  was  likened  by  Au- 
gustine to  a  circle  whose  centre  is  everywhere  and  whose 
circumference  can  be  nowhere.  His  energy  is  conserved 
and  his  intense  desire  to  do  better  service  will  find  room 
for  exercise  in  an  unmeasured  sphere  of  activity. 

"  But  it  is  hard  to  walk  our  streets  without  seeing  his 
earnest,  kindly  face.  It  is  distressing  to  come  to  these 
institutions  which  he  built  up  and  not  hear  his  cheery 
voice.  It  is  agonizing  to  witness  our  loved  ones  grow 
sick  without  the  hope  inspired  by  his  reassuring  visit. 
Yet  we  should  in  thankfulness  remember  that  by  his  will 
power  he  made  that  body  which  latterly  was  so  full  of 
pain  and  weakness  the  obedient  instrument  for  the  inter- 
ests of  benevolence,  science,  private  friendship,  public  life. 
He  was  so  patient,  so  courageous,  so  absorbed  in  his 
noble  projects  for  the  good  of  humanity  that  we  thought 
he  could  never  leave  us.  But  there  came  a  day  when  he 
1  had  one  clear  call '  from  a  Voice  which  he  knew  and 
from  a  country  to  which  he  would  not  go  as  a  stranger. 
There  was  no  fear  to  meet  the  last  duty  of  Time.  All 
that  had  preceded  had  been  well  done  and  Death  was 
simply  passing  to  a  new  scene,  equipped  by  discipline 
with  a  character  fitted  for  enlarged  work.  Hence  there 
could  be  no  cessation  from  activity  or  change  of  purpose. 

"  We  look  in  the  direction  he  went,  but  the  tears  so 
blind  our  eyes  that  we  see  darkly  through  a  mist.  We 
know  that  the  marvelous  energy,  the  loving  sympathy, 


48  INMEMORYOF 

the  burning  zeal  for  faithful  service  are  safe  beyond  the 
touch  of  the  Destroyer.  We  think  too  much  of  his  re- 
moval from  us  and  cannot  quite  sink  our  selfishness  in 
the  thought  of  his  promotion.  Love,  that  took  a  last 
lingering  look  at  the  shard  which  so  lately  was  the 
abode  of  a  choice  spirit,  desires  to  keep  him  still  in 
sight. 

"  Nor  blame  we  Death  because  he  bore 
The  use  of  virtue  out  of  earth  ; 
We  know  transplanted  human  worth 
Will  bloom  to  profit  otherwhere. 

"For  this  alone  on  Death  we  wreak 
The  wrath  that  garners  in  our  heart ; 
He  put  our  lives  so  far  apart 
We  cannot  hear  each  other  speak." 


LEVI      COOPER     LANE  49 

On  Monday  evening,  the  twenty-first  day  of  April, 
1902,  the  FACULTY  OF  COOPER  MEDICAL  COLLEGE 
unanimously  adopted  the  following : 

"  The  Faculty  of  Cooper  Medical  College,  in  grate- 
ful remembrance  of  our  late  President,  our  loved  associate, 
our  cherished  friend  and  guide,  makes  this  record  in 
honor  of  Dr.  Lane: 

"Cooper  Medical  College  owes  its  foundation  and 
highest  aspirations  of  its  existence  to  Dr.  Levi  Cooper 
Lane,  who  gave  of  his  wisdom  and  wealth,  in  beneficent 
love  for  his  profession  and  humanity,  the  lands  and 
buildings  now  known  as  Cooper  Medical  College  and 
Lane  Hospital. 

"  With  deep  sorrow  we  make  record  of  the  founder's 
death  on  the  i8th  day  of  February,  in  the  year  1902, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-two  years. 

"  May  it  be  the  will  of  God  to  grant  and  the 
gratitude  of  man  to  keep  this  College  in  all  perpetuity 
as  a  living  monument  to  Levi  Cooper  Lane,  as  an  ever- 
teaching  memorial  to  the  great  soul  of  its  founder,  who 
breathed  into  it  his  breath  of  life  —  his  legacy  to  medical 
education,  his  boon  to  mankind  !  " 


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